HUGHES
,
ROBERT
(
1811
-
1892
),
Calvinistic Methodist minister
;

b.
25 March 1811
at
Bodgared
,
Llanwnda, Caerns.
; his father, a
tenant-farmer
who moved from holding to holding during the son's early life, finally settled at
Moelfre Fawr
,
Llanaelhaearn
, dying there at ninety-five. The boy had little schooling (he was for a while taught by
DavidThomas
(
Dafydd Ddu Eryri
,
1759
-
1822
, q.v.)
), but gained local fame as a
wood-carver
. In
1830
he walked up to
London
with a
cattle-drove
, intending to enlist the support of
GriffithDavies
the
mathematician
(q.v.)
, who was related to his mother.
Davies
found him work of sorts in
London
, and he became a member of
Jewin Calvinistic Methodist church
, where
HughOwen
(later
SirHughOwen
, q.v.)
was his
Sunday-school teacher
. But in
1833
his father placed him in the large (and badly rundown) farm of
Uwchlaw'r-ffynnon
, where he had to struggle hard to keep things going. Yet he read diligently, and also turned to verse,
winning prizes at eisteddfodau
; he became a friend of
EllisOwen
of
Cefn-y-meusydd
(q.v.)
and of
EbenezerThomas
(
Eben Fardd
, q.v.)
; it is clear that his abilities attracted attention, for
J. H.Cotton
(q.v.)
offered to help him to
Anglican
orders, and other well-wishers proposed to send him up to
University College
, in
London
. But the farm could not be left, especially after he m. and had a growing family; he had to content himself with inquiring of students who called at his house what books were being used at
Bala College
, and acquiring the rudiments of
Greek
and
Hebrew
and
Latin
unaided. He had begun to
preach
in
1838
(the year of his marriage with
CatherineHughes
of
Gelli
in
Deneio
near
Pwllheli
), and was a notable
preacher
; he accompanied
JohnJones
of
Tal-y-sarn
on preaching-tours, and was remarkable not only for verbal wit but also for a pictorial style of preaching. Ordained in
1848
, he was the unpaid
pastor of a chapel
(
Babell
) which he built in
1857
. He d.
3 May 1892
.
RobertHughes
was an exceptional man, and his autobiography (published with a selection of his sermons in
1893
) is highly interesting. What emerges is an artistic bent — in his
wood-carving
, in his metrical skill, in his pictorial preaching, and lastly, in his hobby of
painting in oils
, which he took up when sixty years of age.